A Game Of Cat And Mouse
by Enna York
Summary: Izumi Lan is a graduate student in psychology with the ambition of reforming ghouls to coexist with humans, she's managed to get into cochlea, holding center for the most notorious ghouls. One of her patients is none other than Naki who she has struck up a friendship with. Once the ghouls have been freed by Aoigiri, Izumi and Naki must figure out who to trust their lives to.


"Good Morning Naki! It's me Doctor Lan here to see you again!" The cheerful university graduate student called out, she was close to graduation this was in fact her honours project that had taken months of painstaking work to even get looked at and acknowledged and then several more to get approved. But nonetheless she had gotten what she wanted in the end through perseverance and optimism, to be in Cochlea studying S-ranked ghouls to learn their behaviours and mentalities and see if there was a possibility of reforming them, making it possible to have ghouls and humans live together. Much to her displeasure she hadn't been permitted to choose which ghouls it was that she was allowed to study, they were predetermined and selected by the CCG for her. But it was a small sacrifice to make because if she hadn't agreed they wouldn't have allowed her through the doors. Her favourite subject though was Naki, his naivety and childlikeness was entertaining for her and brought some cheerfulness in what otherwise would have been a very dark and somber environment. She also considered him the most likely to benefit from her proposed plan of reforming ghouls, his lack of education and child like mind might prove to be more flexible and susceptible to change. It didn't take much to get him to trust her either which was promising considering the ghoul had little regard for human life.

Her heels clacked against the hard floor of the compound as she approached him chained up to a table and under supervision, she carried a cardboard tray of drinks in one hand with numerous piles of paperwork precariously piled on top and her laptop and bag tucked into her other arm. She carefully placed the drinks on the table cautious of not spilling the contents, "Soda pop for me and black coffee for you." She said pushing the drinks over to their respective recipient before sitting down. Her elbow planted itself on the table as her cheek dropped down onto her palm and she smiled cheekily at the ghoul, "So Naki what are we going to work on today?" she asked him, she was trying her very best to be subtle with her research, instead of outright asking him questions on his views or morality and trying to change them she would distract him with activities and tasks. When she first met him she administered basic intelligence tests to determine his knowledge base, he scored horribly in language but amazingly in math despite never having attending school-well so as long as she read the questions out to him he was able to answer them; they had since been working on those skills using activity books meant for elementary school children.

He seemed to be showing progress too in terms of morality, at first he seemed to only genuinely cared for his 'Boss' Yamori and his own well-being. But lately he had also been expressing empathy towards other ghouls contained in Cochlea and others left behind outside. It was honestly making Izumi jitter with giddiness. Now if she could have him express empathy towards her and then other humans in the compound she would be showing real progress.

Naki reached forwards and accepted the coffee, "I want to work on my numbers, Boss Yamori says I'm good at handling money-I am very responsible you know!" he exclaimed with pride puffing his chest out.

Izumi beamed with happiness Naki was the same as always, "So you've told me, but we did math yesterday how about we work on writing and spelling today. Let's see if we can spell Yamori, you had trouble with that on our last spelling test." She said withdrawing the printing pages she had made up for today and sliding them over to him, "Do you remember how to spell it?"

Naki nodded his head, Dr. Lan was the nicest person in Cochlea always bringing him gifts and activities so he wouldn't get bored, she always spoke very kindly to him and listened to him. She seemed to believe him when he talked about how strong and responsible he was unlike most people. Naki never once considered the idea that humans could be good or bad, he always thought that there were the ones that tasted good and the ones that tasted bad, those that Yamori liked to play with and the ones that bored Yamori. But after being put in Cochlea he learned that humans could be very bad, mean and cruel; and then Dr. Lan appeared and showed him how nice humans could be as well, it was rather all confusing to him, he wasn't sure if Dr. Lan was unique or if many other humans were like her.

Izumi frowned, it looked like Naki was lost in thought which was rather odd he never seemed to get lost in thought. Distracted for sure, he easily got distracted especially if she mentioned Yamori, or rather the Y-word was how she came to refer to him so she wouldn't distract the blonde ghoul. She cleared her throat, "So Naki you want to show me how to spell Yamori?" she repeated to him and he jumped snapped out of his thoughts.

"I sure do!" he exclaimed eagerly reaching forwards for the pencil, he could see the guard standing behind Dr. Lan tense up when he grabbed the pencil. He stared down at it for several moments before remembering that one day Dr. Lan got horribly hurt by another ghoul using the pencil as a weapon since their RC cells had been supressed. There was a large circular scar on the back of her hand from where the pencil had been stabbed through her hand. It made Naki very mad that someone would hurt some like Dr. Lan who only did her very best to help everyone around her.

Izumi reached across the table and shifted the paper, "Come on Naki show me how to spell Yamori." She insisted seeing that he had gotten distracted and off task.

"Oh right! I can do this!" Naki stated enthusiastically clutching the pencil tightly, so tightly that it snapped in his hand, "I can't wait to show boss Yamori how much I've learned. I'll be so much better with handling the money, and maybe he'll have me do other things as well!" he rambled on as he examined the paper. His smile quickly faded as his brows knit together and he began trying to puzzle out what the page read.

Izumi watched Naki closely wary of his aggression flaring up, part of her wondered if he could possibly be dyslexic and that's why he had so much trouble reading and writing, "Are you having difficulty reading it Naki, I have a different style of printing with me today for you to try if that's the case," she suggested.

"No I can do it!" he insisted and his pencil began scribbling across the page, though to be honest he only understood half of what the page read and wasn't even quite sure how to answer. But not only did he have Boss Yamori to impress, there was also Dr. Lan who was relying on him to do well. He'd heard her talk with the guards, one of them being her step brother how she was so happy with Naki for his progress and was so proud of him.

"So Naki how have your feelings been this week?" Izumi asked as she clicked her pen ready to transcribe whatever he said.

"Very happy this week Dr. Lan, I heard that Boss Yamori is doing really great and that's great for me. I'm so excited to see him again!" he exclaimed as she watched him answer a question wrong, "And then today I was super happy to see you because you always bring me treats."

Izumi quirked a brow as she readjusted her glasses, "That's lovely to hear, are you sure there's nothing else though" she asked.

Naki ducked his head embarrassed, "I did have one bad day Dr. Lan," he admitted like a child with their hand caught in the cookie drawer, "I hurt one of the guards because he hurt the ghoul in the cell next to me. He was so mean Dr. Lan! You wouldn't have believed it so I had to do something about it!"

Izumi feigned total sympathy nodding her head along, "He sounds very mean Naki unfairly hurting a ghoul like that-but Naki was it right for you to hurt him? How do you think he feels"

Naki shrugged, "I don't know, scared of me and that's good. It's a good thing when you make the enemy scared Dr. Lan, if anyone tries to hurt you Dr. Lan I'll make sure they're really scared I swear," he assured her.

Izumi reached out across the table aware that the guards shifted uncomfortably at that but nonetheless took Naki's hand squeezing it in a friendly manner, "That's really nice of you Naki, I'm so glad that I can be your friend. I'll make sure you don't get any scary or mean guards 'kay."

Naki smiled happily, "No you don't have to do that, I'd rather I get the scary guards because I'm tough and can handle it-but my friends here might not be able to," he said puffing his chest out, "I'm very lonely here so I have to make sure I look out for my friends so they stay my friends."

Izumi pulled her hand back to scribble down some notes, "So these friends are very important to you are they"

"Definitely there's nothing worse than being lonely!" Naki insisted trying to leap to his feet but the handcuffs securing him to the table preventing him from doing so.

"I have to agree, loneliness is terrible-that's why I do my best to visit you as often as I'm allowed to so that way I know someone's visiting," Izumi said to stay on his good side and be as reassuring as possible, "You seem to be all done with your homework, can I take a look?" she asked him.

He nodded his head and slid the paper over to Dr. Lan, Izumi glanced over the paper and was as generous as she could possibly be with marking. It was bad, still a grade school level but for Naki it was certainly an improvement from where they started, "I think I'm going to keep this test to put on the wall in my office!" she remarked hiding the marks and look as proud as she could, the test was just going to be put in his case file.

"How about we try this test though," she said sliding a new test printed with color over lays and bigger letters to him to see if that would help his reading fluency. She wanted to get him reading so they could read texts to expose him to different viewpoints and perspectives to help develop his infantile morality.

She watched him furrow up in concertation and his eyes scan over the page, "Hey Dr. Lan his is so much easier to read!" he remarked happily, she smiled in relief and jotted down a note to see if these tactics would help with some of her other subjects.

Suddenly there was knocking on the door behind her, she turned to see her brother dressed in the heavy black gear of all CCG guard personal. He had his typical serious and deadpan expression on his face and regarded her with worry.

"Naki I'm going to leave that with you as homework alright, now don't forget about your coffee alright?" she chirped as she collected up her things, "I have to be going now there are other ghouls for me to visit," she explained.

He looked up at her with the expression of a kicked puppy and he crushed the pencil in his hand in two, "Really?" he whined like a child.

She nodded her head sadly, "Until next time, you keep working on your feelings in the meantime. If it's a good week I'll have an even bigger present than this week," she watched the child like wonder stretch out across his face, "I'll bring a special friend for you!" she assured him, it was really just a stuffed animal but she wanted to see how he'd interact and if he'd treat it with kindness and compassion.

He slammed his hands into the table excitedly, "Dr. Lan you're the best!" he shouted out, he sniffled tears running down his face, "Oh if only Boss Yamori could meet you Dr. Lan and I could explain all the wonderful things you do! I'm so much more responsible now all thanks to you!"

Izumi laughed awkwardly as a shiver ran down her spine which Naki seemed oblivious to, the last thing that Izumi wanted was to meet Yamori under any circumstance whatsoever, "Alright Naki, it's bye for today!" He nodded his head so enthusiastically she swore it would fall right off his neck. Her step brother cleared her throat, the sign of the final warning that she had been procrastinating for too long. So she picked up her things and began to walk back to the heavy duty door.

Izumi glanced over her shoulder back towards the cell she had just come out of the heavy door slowly swinging shut Naki sitting at the table smiling and waving at her while the guards moved closer to him to move him back to his confinement cell, she waggled her fingers in farewell before turning back to her step brother "You know I think he's kind of cute!" she remarked playfully, "He's so childlike and silly and it doesn't help he's got a cute face." She giggled, she felt a blush and hoped it was only light pink to look like it was from her laughing but it was the honest truth. Naki did have a good looking face, and she liked being the responsible one in the relationship, if he were a human she'd have long since fallen for him.

Her brother frowned in response not impressed with his sister's antics "He's a ghoul, he kills people." He commented coldly and bluntly.

"Yeah but I'm working to fix that, you'll see I'll have him trained right from wrong in no time flat." Izumi argued back to him.


End file.
